


Weird Little Greasepit - Sophomore Year - January

by appending_fic



Series: Weird Little Greasepit - Sophomore Year [5]
Category: Buddy Thunderstruck (Cartoon), Night In The Woods (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Magic, Best Friends, Bisexual Male Character, Cults, Father-Son Relationship, House Cleaning, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Insecurity, M/M, Mystery, Night in the Woods Spoilers, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2018-05-26
Packaged: 2019-05-14 00:27:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14759171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/appending_fic/pseuds/appending_fic
Summary: While cleaning house, Darnell and Buddy find a mysterious book written in an indecipherable code. This, inevitably, ends with them breaking into the high school on a Sunday. Meanwhile, Darnell is starting to wonder if he really *likes* risking his life on a regular basis.





	Weird Little Greasepit - Sophomore Year - January

The first thing Buddy said when Darnell opened the door was, "What happened to you?"

Darnell looked down. His overalls were smeared with dust, dark patches accumulated on his fur. He did, in fact, look like a mess.

"My mom has me cleaning the basement. The last owner left a ton of junk there."

"Have you found any magic lamps or artifacts of untold power?"

Darnell paused before responding. Inside their house, it was easy to forget how weird Greasepit could get, and that, as the previous owner was a resident, that could very well extend to the contents of their home.

"...No."

"I just bet you have not been looking hard enough. Come on."

"Wait, what?" But Buddy was already on his way past Darnell, halfway to the door to the basement. Darnell wasted only about a second considering, before trailing hurriedly after Buddy. Buddy wasn't destructive by nature, but he wasn't careful by any means. 

He caught up with Buddy just as Buddy stepped off the stairs, taking in the sight of the basement. There were a few bags of trash piled next to the stairs, the fruits of several hours of labor, but most of the basement was a mess. Boxes of books and knick-knacks sat on ancient, worn furniture; there was a grandfather clock somewhere in the mess that kept highly irregular time; and Darnell knew when he found whatever kept running around at ground level he was going to scream.

"This...is going to be awesome."

An hour later, Buddy collapsed onto a couch, not noticing or caring the dust it left coating his T-shirt. "This was a _terrible_ idea."

"You can go any time you want; these are my chores."

"What, no!" Buddy rocketed up to a seated position, waving his hands. "I am totally down with lugging a billion stupid boxes to the trash if I can hang with you. We haven't hung out in, like, forever."

Darnell winced at what had probably not been intended to be a pointed comment, but struck home nonetheless. Between school, work (where Leeroy was teaching Darnell to service cars, a messily satisfying skill), and time spent with Gregg and, often, Gregg's friends, Darnell hadn't made much time for Buddy.

"Sorry."

"What? Oh, no, I am not mad, bro. It is the sacred duty of a bro to support his bro's romantic endeavors. I had a catchy saying for this…" Buddy tapped at his chin as he considered. After a moment, he snarled, shaking his head and sending motes of dust scattering away from him. "Never mind. Anyway…" He suddenly grinned and stood, sliding close to Darnell. "How _is_ the famous Greggory Lee?"

"I-" Darnell flushed, cursing, as he did every time he blushed, the pale fur that made his embarrassment obvious. "Good?"

"Come on, you can do better than that. You have been spending a _lot_ of time with him."

"I mean, not like - he's got his band - Mae just got her cast off - and his friends sort of hang out a lot and he likes dragging me along. He's cool. Um."

"Cute, too?" Buddy winked and Darnell's flush deepened. 

"...Yeah."

"And I feel I _have_ to ask. Is he a good kisser?"

"Um." Darnell couldn't bring himself to raise his eyes from his feet. "That's sort of. Personal?"

"Oh, hey, sure." Buddy grabbed Darnell around the shoulders and pulled him into a side hug. "Do not let me pressure you into talking about anything you don't want to, Darnell. We are _bros_. Now I bet you want to get started on that box of books. You'll like that, right?"

A year ago, when Darnel first had the panicked realization that cute boys were just as debilitating to his focus as cute girls, he had sort of resigned himself to never talking about it until college. He hadn't had friends who would talk to him about hypothetical _girlfriends_. So he still felt a little off-balance when he remembered not only did he have a boyfriend of nearly a month, but a bro who was happy to talk about it.

Buddy turned, leaning back against one of the boxes. "Just one more thing. Gregg's like, cool, right?"

"Um, yeah?"

"I mean, does he...treat you right?" There was actually a faint darkening around Buddy's cheeks. "Because you are a cool dude, and do not deserve anyone who does not make you feel that way."

"Oh! Oh, yeah, Gregg's...cool."

Darnell stomped forward and grabbed several books from the box just to avoid continuing the conversation.

This did not turn out to be the optimal choice.

"'Applications of Graph Theory to the Three-Body Problem'...no, this is porn." Buddy chucked the latest book at the growing pile of innocuously named and mind-numbingly dull erotica that filled the box. "At 15 years old, I feel I should not be tossing aside a veritable treasure trove of pornography."

"Well, if any of it were remotely readable, we would be justified in keeping it. 'Brute-Force Solutions to Fermi's Paradox'? Porn." Darnell sent another book to join the pile. "I'm tempted to dump the whole rest of the box."

"But piles of worthless junk is where 90% of all discoveries of lost artwork, pirate treasure, and dangerous magical artifacts occur! Like...look at this!"

Buddy held out a book entitled, 'Hodge Conjectures in Non-Infinite Space'. Darnell took it and opened it to a random page.

"This is porn."

"Well, surely one of these is _not_." Buddy began rifling through the books, throwing several aside before saying, "ah-hah! 'Newtonian' - aigh!" He hurled the book at the far wall, where it hit before falling onto a dusty coffee table. "There were illustrations." He shuddered.

"Are you ready to just burn this whole box?"

"No! I believe that in every box of badly-written pornography, there is a precious treasure waiting to be found!" Buddy took a deep breath, plunged both hands into the box, and began digging. Darnell was about to forcibly drag Buddy away from the box when Buddy lifted his hands, triumphant. "Yes!"

The book was dark, leather-bound, and didn't have a suspiciously generic title. It had no title at all, in fact, just a silver circle inscribed with curving geometric patterns, itself inset within a larger circle. Twisting letters in the space between the two circles spelt out, 'CQYO VPT LCU TW SP OIN USK TMP MKVS ALV CWOJ UW WL QRZ VZE DM'.

"I'm a little curious even if it turns out to be porn," Darnell admitted.

"Then let's do this right." Buddy carried the book reverently to a desk covered in snowglobes, swept them aside (Darnell winced), and set the book down. "On three. One...two...three!"

It was not porn, at lease in any way Darnell could tell. There were pictures, of dragons, unicorns, gnomes, trolls. There were diagrams and graphs.

And it was all nonsense. There wasn't a word that Darnell could make out in the entire book as Buddy flipped through it, making awed noises. They reached the end, eventually, a page with a detailed drawing of a brain, scribbled over heavily with ink.

"Well, that was useless."

"Well, that was awesome." Buddy and Darnell glanced at each other; Buddy's ears drooped, a little. " _I_ thought it was awesome."

"I mean, yeah, this is cool and all, but what do we _do_ with it?"

"Figure it out!" Buddy declared. "Come on, maybe it's Polish."

"It's not-" It was clear Buddy was immersed in the possibilities posed by the book, and they weren't going to get any more work done. "Let's go upstairs."

Begging a break from the cleaning, and getting both of them clean of dust and dirt, took longer than Darnell had expected. When Darnell returned to his room, still drying his hair, Buddy was sitting on the couch on the ground level of his room, book open to a page about…

"That's a gorgon."

"Yeah. Well obviously _this_ is the word for gorgon,"

"And you tried a substitution cipher. No luck?"

"Unless 'jlvo dgvo' means anything to you, no."

"Hm." Darnell flipped through the book. Each page had a title, a large word at the top that was likely the topic. Trying to work out key connecting words didn't lead to a comprehensible cypher. "There's probably some sort of decryption key you need to make sense of this," Darnell concluded. "A key phrase or something."

Buddy huffed and set back. "That sucks. Here I got my hopes up for a super awesome adventure book, and it's just an unreadable mess."

"I could get some of the kids from the math club to take a look at it."  
"What? Why?" Buddy's expression was narrow, suspicious, the way he got when Darnell tried to help him with his math homework.

"Cryptography is a branch of mathematics, so they might have some idea how to break this code."

"This book is full of _math_?" A nod was easier than trying to explain the intricacies of an answer. Buddy scowled. "We should burn it with the rest of the crud down there; it is clearly a book of evil magic."

Darnell considered indulging Buddy in this. Whoever had written this book wanted its secrets hidden, and that meant they were dangerous. But Buddy had a long history of surviving dangerous things, and trying to hang out with him without a plan ended up with Buddy coming up with _ideas_. Besides, even if Buddy wasn't trying to make Darnell feel guilty, Darnell _hadn't_ been around much lately. The flush of a new relationship, new people who liked Darnell, had distracted him from a friend who'd been nothing but good to him since he'd arrived in Greasepit.

"Hey, look, I'll poke around and see if I can get any answers _without_ math, and we'll reconvene."

"Tomorrow?"

The answer that Darnell'd agreed to hang out with Gregg Sunday died in Darnell's throat. "Yeah, let's see what I can pull together."

"Awesome!" Buddy stuck out his fist, which Darnell obligingly bumped. "Ka-boom! Now, can you get your mom to drive me home? Muncie threatened to abandon me here and I am supposed to help Auntie Uncle lie to the bank."

"Well, Mom's at the clinic all day, so it'll be my dad."

"What does he even do?"

Darnell shrugged. "Accounting or something. He's on the computer all day. I'll get him to drop you off when I go to work."

"Ooh, work with the _mysterious_ Leeroy."

"He's teaching me how to rebuild engines." 

Buddy grinned almost impossibly wide. "That is _so cool_."

Darnell shrugged. "I mean, it's just fixing shit."

" _Cars_ , Darnell. Muncie's been letting me practice on her car out by Sludge Puddle Creek, and I have only crashed three times."

"Are you hoping to have someone around to fix your car for free when you get your license?"

Buddy gasped, putting a hand on his chest. "I would _never_ abuse our friendship like that! I would truly and sincerely appreciate any help you gave me with whatever piece of junk I buy when I turn 16, but I do not _expect_ you to do anything for me."

It was weird, that Darnell was beginning to suspect Buddy meant it when he said things like that.

That Buddy was the best friend he could have hoped for.

Darnell was reviewing the engine diagrams for Really Old Lady's truck while Gregg kicked Leeroy's storage lockers, when Darnell shared that thought.

"That is awesome, babe. Everyone needs a best friend. A partner in crime, an amigo, a bassist to your lead guitar."

"Buddy is a _terrible_ bassist."

"Yeah, but he did that awesome thing out-lawyering the Devil, which is _way_ cooler - no, scratch that - _almost_ as cool."

"Hey." Darnell took a breath, stopped short by a tightness in his chest. "Buddy mentioned I haven't been spending much time with him so I sort of promised to go...mystery hunting with him tomorrow."

"What, hey! Are you worried I'd be mad? He is your _bro_." Gregg hopped over and nudged Darnell's shoulder until Darnell looked up from the manual, at which point Gregg kissed his nose. "I would be a _shitty_ boyfriend if I didn't let you hang with your best friend. And hey, Buddy's cool."

"Yeah, you're...pretty cool yourself."

"H - ho! Darnell thinks I'm cool!" Darnell got a kiss - a peck - on the lips this time before Gregg poked at the partially disassembled engine. "What are we doing here?"

"Well, _I'm_ supposed to be rebuilding this engine. I think Leeroy would rather you didn't touch it."

"That is...fair."

Darnell took a few minutes reviewing the manual, planning out what he needed to do. It didn't _look_ much harder than the stuff Leeroy had let him work on already, but this was without supervision - well, _competent_ supervision - so Darnell was determined to get it right on the first try.

When Darnell looked up, Gregg was sitting against the wall, apparently intent on watching Darnell work, but his ears were back, twitching uncertainly.

"Gregg? You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just-" He waved at the engine. "I'm not gonna take a baseball bat to it."

"I didn't - didn't say that, Gregg."

"Yeah, but - Leeroy."

Danrell huffed and crossed the garage to lean against the wall next to Gregg, nudging Gregg's leg with his foot. "Okay, I'll admit I extrapolated here. He didn't _specifically_ say not to let you touch anything in here. I just assumed that, because you don't know anything about cars, Leeroy wouldn't want you touching his clients' stuff."

"That is...equally fair."

Darnell jerked his head toward the car. "Hey, how about I show you what I'm working on?"

Gregg climbed to his feet, a smile tugging at his mouth. "Will you teach me how to hotwire a car?"

" _I_ don't know how to hotwire a car. Just...ask questions and maybe someday your car will break down on a beer run and you'll know how to fix it. Be a hero."

Teaching Gregg as he went along eased some of Darnell's anxiety at doing it right, although they did get...distracted a couple of times. He was feeling a little lighter when Gregg left on his bike, waiting for his dad to pick him up, bundled up against the chill.

The ride home was quiet; Aaron Fetzervalve didn't talk much if he could wrangle otherwise. Spending so much time around people who didn't have 'off' switches, Darnell appreciated the few minutes to himself.

Well, until his dad glanced over at him. "And how's Greggory?"

"I - I was at work."

"Come on, son, you're almost 16, work at a convenience store, and I dropped Buddy at home before work."

"Oh my god." Darnell dropped his head on the dashboard, feeling his cheeks heat. "Dad, I don't-"

"Oh, come on. I am a progressive, forward-thinking modern man. 'Woke', as they say. I am aware sometimes boys with 'non-traditional' sexualities may be worried their father disapproves of their life choices. So I am showing an active and non-judgmental interest in your relationship with Greggory. Are you two having sex?"

"Dad. Please don't-"

"I keep condoms in the bottom drawer of my nightstand, in case you decide to and are embarrassed to get them yourself. Although you _do_ work at a truck stop, so-"

"Dad. If I promise to get some pamphlets from the school nurse, will you _please stop talking about this_?"

"Alright." The car was blessedly silent for a minute, and then, "You were pretty vague when you told us about Greggory. Are you gay? Bisexual? _Pan_ sexual?"

"Bisexual, I guess?"

"Well, don't pin yourself down, Dar." Darnell's dad patted Darnell's shoulder. "It's your life. I just hope you keep me...in the loop."

"I…" Darnell's breath was a little shaky as he tried to respond. "Yeah, sure, Dad."

It felt unreal, what he'd found in Greasepit. Not just the magic and monsters, but _acceptance_. Not just of his sexuality, but who _he_ was. It was more than he'd ever hoped from his dad, much less a circle of friends he was pretty sure topped a dozen.

The book full of secrets encoded by an unbreakable code was a welcome distraction from wondering if he was in some sort of coma dream. He spent three hours reading the Cryptography page on Wikipedia before he found inspiration, and then another three trying to work through it.

Darnell was woken by a lanky dog leaping onto his bed with absolutely no consideration for anyone in the bed who might have wanted to sleep. Darnell shoved Buddy off and poked his head out of his blankets to glare at the dog sprawled on his floor.

"What are you doing?"

"You overslept, Darnell! And your mom said I could head right up."

"And the jumping on my bed?"

"It always looked so comfortable."

"Well." It _was_ comfortable, if not nearly big enough to hold two people, if Buddy's impromptu attempt at a sleepover was any indication. "Can you warn me before you decide to join me in bed next time? I think you bruised something."

"Oh, fart nuggets! Should I get you salve? Or aspirin A splint?"

"No, I'll be fine."

"Good. I did not mean to injure you. You are my-"

"Bro, yeah." Darnell rolled out of bed, scanned his room, and settled on a pair of sweatpants over his boxers. He could change if they somehow ended up having to leave the house. "Now, I've been looking at the book and think I made a breakthrough."

"Yes, I _knew_ you could do it!"

Darnell ducked his head to hide his blush. "It wasn't hard once I knew what to look for. Given that you picked out the word 'gorgon' meant that it was a substitution cipher - A means C, D means Q, that sort of thing."

Buddy scowled. "But I _tried_ that."

"Well, yeah, you tried a regular substitution. But this book is written with a Vigen&eagravere cipher. Well, a bunch of them."

"Vig-"

"You make this 26 by 26 grid and assign a key phrase-" Darnell shook his head, not wanting to go through the intricacies again. "Anyway, I translated the page about gorgons." Darnell wandered down to the lower level of his room and pulled the sheet off his desk, handing it to Buddy. "It's nothing we don't know at this point, but it means the cipher works. The problem is the key for each page seems to be the title word, and I can't figure out what any of _those_ are."

Buddy frowned, flopping down next to Darnell's desk. "This is _not_ as awesome as I hoped it would be."

"Yeah, well." Darnell shrugged, sitting next to Buddy. "If we can figure out a page's _title_ , we can translate it."

"Hm." Buddy flipped through the book, pausing at a page picturing a strange, smooth-skinned beast, face twisted into an impossibly wide grin, titled 'KYQWI EBVJZ'. On the facing page, titled 'MIIAM MSGBT', was a hulking beast wielding a flaming hammer. Buddy flipped to the next page and gasped.

"Buddy?"

"That's the sign of the Cult of the Black Goat."

The title, 'CWAEU UOTU', seemed like it _could_ have been 'black goat'. The sign, a handprint inside a pentagon, didn't look particularly threatening. "Well how about I decipher this while you tell me about the Black Goat."

"I mean, I don't know about the Black Goat itself - but like five years ago, a whole bunch of guys died when an old mine out here collapsed on them. Like, the _day_ after, the cops showed up at all their houses, dug through their stuff, and found some _weird_ shit. Turns out they were all part of this secret murder cult."

"Murder...cult?"

"Yeah, they were sacrificing hobos and drifters down in the mines, and a couple of kids people thought had run away or overdosed on drugs out in the woods. Everyone freaked out for a while, not letting kids go out at night...it was the worst Halloween ever. But then everyone figured the whole cult had been down there when the mine collapsed and relaxed."

"Hm." Darnell wasn't so sure, but wasn't about to suggest so out loud. He couldn't help but feel he'd seen that symbol somewhere before. He decided to focus on deciphering the page rather than think about who in town might be part of a secret murder cult.

"Huh. The Black Goat is a chthonic entity, linked to 'bottomless' holes...thrives on sacrifice...known to grant its followers unnatural influence over others, the ability to slip through solid matter...Buddy, this is sort of freaking me out."

“What? Hey.” Buddy grabbed Darnell into a hug, pulling Darnell back against his chest. “I would not let the Cult of the Black Goat sacrifice you. Me and Muncie - and Gregg and Mae, I guess - would toss them down their own bottomless holes. And that’s if they even _got_ you. You are a _badass_ , Darnell Fetzervalve. You killed a vampire, beat a ghost-“

“I think you and I are remembering that trip to Ziel’s very differently.”

“ _And_ you can play guitar!”

“Yeah, well…”

“So don’t worry about creepy murder cults. Now, anything else interesting about the Black Goat?”

Darnell felt a twist in his gut, a shock that left him cold.

“I’ve seen that symbol before.”

Buddy let go of Darnell, scrambling around in front of him, ears perked up. “Where?”

Darnell glanced up at Buddy, tempted, briefly, to lie. Despite Buddy’s assurances, Darnell didn’t want to confront a murder cult. He would have preferred not having to stake a vampire, would have liked not earning the Devil’s personal enmity.

But...Buddy had his back. And lying to his bro was probably not cool.

“Have you ever actually looked at the books Principal Moneybags keeps in office? Because one of them had this symbol on the cover.”

“Hm. Well, there is no hope for it. We’ll have to break into the school. I’ll call Muncie. You get some pants on.”

Darnell almost told Buddy he didn’t want to hunt murder cults at the high school. But he hadn’t hung out with Buddy in forever, and Buddy looked so excited. Darnell couldn’t bring himself to put a damper on that.

So he sat quietly in the back of the car while Buddy and Muncie argued about the wisdom of going somewhere they weren’t supposed to be, looking for a group of people _known_ to have murdered at least a dozen people.

At last, they pulled up to the school, where Muncie gave Darnell a level glare. “Call me if you’re not dead later and maybe I’ll come pick you up.”

Darnell took a shaky breath and nodded. And then it was him and Buddy alone outside the school.

“At least there’s no fence.”

“Oh.” Buddy’s ears drooped. “I was looking forward to scaling a fence.”

“Where would - anyway, let’s see if there’s an unlocked door somewhere.”

“Oh, no, there will not be. The janitor is _very good_ at his job. There is, however, a second floor, and Mr. Seltzer always keeps his window open.”

The plan, such as it was, was for Buddy to boost Darnell up to the window, and Darnell to something rope-like to get Buddy up. It was only once Darnell was in the freezing biology lab that he realized this plan involved him wandering the school by himself.

“Why couldn’t you just say, ‘hey, Buddy, how about we play Smash Brothers instead of risking our lives in new and exciting ways’?” Darnell asked, as he made his way down toward the gym in the hopes of finding jump ropes or something.

“Or how about some backup? Mae is a freaky little cat ninja, so _she_ could be up here with me.”

The gym door was locked, so Darnell took a moment to lean against it, cursing his submissiveness rather than considering where to find rope.

In truth, aside from being dark, the school wasn’t that creepy. It wasn’t fair that Darnell should feel so anxious somewhere that didn’t even _look_ like where a secret murder cult would be holed up.

Of course, that was probably how you stayed a secret murder cult, especially if most of the cult had gotten killed hanging out in creepy abandoned mines like people expected them to.

In fact, a secret murder cult that killed drifters and kids people would assume ran away would do well to have plants in the police...and the school.

A soft noise made Darnell jump, slapping a hand over his mouth to keep from making a sound that might betray his presence. He stood for a moment, trying to listen over the pounding of his heart, realizing after about a minute it was a voice.

Creeping forward past the gym, Darnell drew closer to the sound, finding the door to one of the school’s utility rooms ajar. Principal Moneybags was talking to someone, although Darnell couldn’t hear their responses without getting closer, and he was _not_ doing that.

“I am well aware how long it has been since there has been a sacrifice.”

Darnell had been trying to quiet his breath, to calm himself enough for his heartbeat to stop pounding in his ears, but at the mention of sacrifice, he couldn’t draw breath without deep gasps, his heartbeat erratic, violent.

“I am doing very well for myself, not drawing undue attention. You would do well to follow my example.”

Darnell edged closer, almost certain he could hear a murmur in response to Moneybags’ words.

“Because we could bring something worse down upon us - would you wish to contend with the Elder Dragon, or the Smile Witch?”

Darnell could just see into the room, lit by a single flickering bulb. One shadow swung back and forth across the wall, mundane enough to be Principal Moneybags. Was there another, shifting in time with the flickering of the light? Darnell couldn’t be sure.

“No, I don’t think I will, unless you can provide a more compelling argument.”

Darnell shifted closer, hand almost on the door as he twisted his head around. There was _definitely_ a shadow there…

"Because a murderous cult of reactionary conservatives is _not_ something prosperous towns have. This is _my town_ -"

Darnell bumped into the door, which creaked ominously. His first instinct was to freeze, but then he felt something, a piercing, searching attention, like when he'd stood in the shadow of the Devil, and he bolted. The first few moments were without direction, just wanting to get _away_ from Principal Moneybags and whoever he was talking to, but then Darnell remembered the window, and angled back upstairs. When he burst through the door to the biology lab, the sound of pursuit from Principal Moneybags had receded, allowing Darnell to clamber back down the building in slightly less of a panic.

When Darnell landed, a hand touched his shoulder; he yelped and flailed, feeling his elbow connect with something.

"Ow! What the _heck_ , Darnell?"

"Sorry sorry," Darnell said, grabbing Buddy's hand and yanking as he sprinted away from the school. "We need to go."

"What? What did you-"

"We will have time when we are not being chased by an eldritch abomination or a high school principal!"

"A wha-"

"Come on!"

Without time to call Muncie, Darnell led Buddy into the woods next to the school. Hopping logs, dodging deadfalls, and sprinting through the twisting streams laid across the ground, they weren’t too far from the school, probably, when Darnell stopped, winded.

Wheezing, gasping, he dropped down against a fallen tree, one hand clenched around Buddy’s. Buddy dropped down to a crouch, watching Darnell with an even, serious stare until Darnell’s breath evened out, then sat down, leaning next to Darnell.

“Are you okay?”

“Fine.”

“Whoa! Buddy? Darnell? What’re you doing out here?”

Darnell screamed, lunged away from the tree, stopping short because his hand wouldn’t let go of Buddy’s and Buddy hadn’t moved. Balanced on top of the fallen tree, crouched so he could look down on them, was a ginger colored cat, most of his face concealed by the hood pulled tightly around his head.

“Casey?”

“Yeah, dudes.” Casey hopped down, patted Buddy’s shoulder, and crouched down at their level. “You look _freaked_ , man.”

“Yeah, well.” Darnell shivered, both at the realization they’d come out here with little more than light jackets, and at what he’d witnessed inside the school. “I think Principal Moneybags is part of the Cult of the Black Goat.”

“What? Jeez, who told you about that shit?” Casey rolled back on his heels, gave Buddy a narrow glare.

“I am sorry, but we saw it in a book and he would have heard about it _eventually_.” Buddy crossed his arms; with Casey there, Darnell was feeling a little less nervous, and let go of Buddy’s hand.

Still…

“Why shouldn’t Buddy tell me about it?”

“Ugh, because it freaks people out, and people like you start acting exactly the way you are right now, seeing cult members everywhere. It was like a dozen guys and they’re all dead. Kaput. Crushed under tons of rock and copper.” Casey waved his hand in an arc as if to convey the degree to which the cult was dead.

Darnell shook his head, unwilling to abandon his conclusion. “I heard him talking to someone - he was talking about laying low, about how long it’d been since there’d been sacrifices. And there was something in there with him. You remember when we saw the Devil? How you could _feel_ it when he paid attention to you? There was something in there that felt like that.” It still left Darnell feeling unnerved, wary. How far away could that thing see him?

Casey huffed, frowning briefly before his expression settled into a more neutral one. “Not much we can really do right now, though?”

But Darnell’s mind was on the nature of demons, bringing him back to the Devil’s grim promise. “You shouldn’t be hanging out here alone.”

“Wha?” Casey laughed. “Dude, you may have Gregg wrapped around your little finger, but I don’t take orders from, like, anyone. Save the old dead dudes who wrote the school band’s music - dudes knew where drumbeats should go. Except Sousa.” He expression shifted to an uncharacteristic scowl. “Sousa can go straight to Hell.”

“But-“

“Come on. I’ll walk you two back to my place; my mom’ll drive you home.” Casey hopped up, reaching down to help Darnell up, leaving Buddy on his own.

He ambled in front of Darnell and Buddy, absently tapping on his leg as he walked. Their path kept close to a rivulet that widened into a stream, and then a creek. Something about Casey’s silence made Darnell hesitant to speak and break it.

“I do not want to sound paranoid, but if Darnell thinks Moneybags is in a cult, we should take it seriously.”

Casey sighed, a short, explosive sound. “You know there’s towns where if you said the high school principal is in a murder cult, I _wouldn’t_ have to take it seriously? Nice, normal places.”

“ _Boring_ places, right, Darnell?” Buddy nudged Darnell’s elbow.

And Darnell felt a twinge in his chest. As much as he’d like to agree with Buddy, ‘boring’ wasn’t how he’d categorize a place where the chances of being asked on a date by a girl who just wanted to drain your blood were negligible at worst.

So he shrugged. “Not everyone can handle as much excitement as you can.”

Casey huffed out a laugh. “You know it, dude.” He held up a fist for Darnell to bump, which he did. It took a few more minutes of walking before Darnell noticed Buddy watching him warily, body tense as he walked.

“Buddy?”

“Is Greasepit too much for you, Darnell?”

“I-“ Darnell’s response stuck in his throat, caught between a lie and something that would upset Buddy.

“Oh jeez, man, chill out.” Casey poked one of Buddy’s ears, which twitched as Buddy slapped at it and glowered at Casey. “The only way to get Darnell to shut up about you is band practice or getting Gregg to drag him to first base.” Darnell hurried forward, ducking away in the vain hope he could conceal his blush, the exact reason he didn't talk about what he and Gregg...got up to if he could remotely help it. “He _likes_ you, dude, whether or not he can stand living in this stupid nightmare town.” After a few moments, Casey added, “I mean, _I_ can’t, but Darnell’s not gonna skip town in the middle of the night.”

Darnell kept walking, uncertain how to respond to that. Telling Casey people would miss him seemed obvious, and something he probably knew.

"If you do that without letting Gregg and Mae know first, I will track you down and kick your ass," Buddy said, cheerfully. "And then I will drag you back here to let them kick your ass, too."

There were another few moments of silence and then, "Harsh, man. But fair." He held out a fist to Buddy, who bumped it obligingly. "We should be arriving at Casa de Hartley any minute. So if anyone's got last-minute confessions or concerns, now's the time."

It seemed even Buddy was talked out, because no one added anything until they reached the Hartley's house, an old, sturdy cabin set at the end of a long driveway. Casey ducked under the half-closed door to the attached garage, an aluminum structure painted a few shades darker brown than the house. He pushed open a door inside, stepping into a messy tiled room.

"Hey, mom! Got visitors!"

"Casey, I told you Gregg couldn't come over - oh!" A calico cat, portly, dressed in jeans and a neatly striped shirt, stepped into the room. "Hello. I'm Sarah Hartley. I don't think we've met."

"This is Buddy Thunderstruck. And Darnell - the guy Gregg's been seeing?"

She gave them all a wide smile. "Well, then it's a delight to meet you. Casey, I did mean you shouldn't have _anyone_ over."

"It's alright. They just needed a place to hang until Buddy's cousin can pick them up. Or...I could finish dinner and you could take them home?"

Mrs. Hartley's smile went a little soft, gentle, and she stepped in to kiss the top of Casey's head; he flailed a little, but didn't protest. "You're a good boy. It's just a stew, but if you can roast some broccoli or carrots in the oven that'd be lovely. Come on, you two."

Mrs. Hartley was chatty, but in the normal adult way, asking about school, their hobbies, and, after dropping Buddy off, a _little_ closer interrogation of Darnell that suggested she saw Gregg as a little more than just one of her son's friends. He wasn't certain how he'd measure up, but at least she didn't order him to stay away from Gregg.

When Darnell got back to his room, the book was sitting, ominously, on top of his desk. He flipped it open to a random page, where the image of a fat cat with unnaturally wide eyes stared out at him. 'MAIKQIWG', it read.

Rather than trying to figure it out, Darnell closed the book and went to bed, if not to sleep. Gregg, it seemed, had been trying to hunt gnomes out in the woods with Mae, a worrying occupation, though Gregg attested neither he nor Mae had gotten hurt 'badly'.

There were several texts from Buddy, too, an unusual discovery; Buddy preferred to call.

'mayb we dont go looking for trouble'

'the books good if we need it'

'but mayb stuf we dont need to no'

Darnell stared at the messages for a long few minutes, trying to find the words to respond. He hadn't thought Buddy noticed how on edge Darnell had been, but here he was, suggesting they not get in too deep with the weirdness of Greasepit.

'I know right? We should go shoot cans in the woods like regular delinquents.'

'pft we can com up w way more awsom plans'

'but put it in the mayb pile'

Darnell grinned at the message.

'Sure.'

**Author's Note:**

> LUYNIJRB IA GY YGPH FWHFMU? IG'M MFPN LVEECW CHNH YFS CHVHK


End file.
